RUSTIK kick-off meeting: Enabling rural communities’ actors and policy makers to design strategies for resilient rural areas

On the 4th and 5th October 2022, Euromontana participated to the kick-off meeting of the Horizon Europe project RUSTIK in Frankfurt (Germany). RUSTIK is a four-year transdisciplinary research project that aims to enable rural communities’ actors and policymakers to design better strategies, initiatives, and policies to foster sustainability transitions in rural areas. It is one of two projects (alongside GRANULAR) selected to support the implementation of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas by improving the understanding of the environmental, socio-economic, behavioural, cultural and demographic drivers of change in rural areas.

Simone Sterly (Institut Fuer Laendliche Strukturforschung Ev), coordinator of the project, stated that “The increased societal and ecological challenges that Europe is facing are drivers for supporting better rural policymaking and more resilient rural areas”.

RUSTIK involves actors from 10 European Countries that will host 14 Pilot Regions where the project will research the different rural functionalities and characteristics as well as the (future) potentials and challenges of rural areas.

RUSTIK will also work to provide:

• a robust methodological framework for functional rural areas,
• databases integrating data of different types and sources,
• improved strategies and governance approaches for rural decision-makers and stakeholders, and
• improved approaches for rural impact assessment and decentralised rural proofing.

During the kick off meeting project partners had the opportunity get to know each other, exchange, and build trust. The coordination team organised interactive moments to create a common understanding of project aims and outcomes, as well as the agreement of a joint workplan between Work Packages and Tasks.

Euromontana will be leading dissemination activities for the project and contribute to the tasks dedicated to the policy uptake of the results.

For more information, please visit www.rustik-he.eu or contact our Project Officer elena.feo@euromontana.org.